Cathryn Wellner
asked
Diane Ackerman:
Translation from page to screen is always challenging. Could you talk about your collaboration with the filmmakers and what changes had to be made to your book to make it fit the parameters of film?
Diane Ackerman
Well, the film actually stays very close to the book. It’s been fascinating for me to discover how one art form gets translated into another art form. For example, I had the luxury of being able to write at length about the unfolding of events over four years, but the film had to somehow compress that into two hours and still retain the soul of what happened, and the daily sense of urgency and danger. It’s been really fascinating for me to see how that happens. So, when I visited the set for four days in Prague I was riveted just to see the exchange of facial expressions, the gestures, how scenes got compressed and tinkered with in different ways, and yet stayed very close to the original. It’s been fascinating. However, I didn’t actually work on the screenplay because I don’t have a background in screenplay writing. So, I thought that should be left to people who are stellar at that form of art and I think Angela Workman did a fabulous job on it. I did read the screenplay though in one of its final forms and commented on that, and I spoke with Workman at great lengths early on and the producers as well. So, we really were all on the same page about what we wanted the film to express.
More Answered Questions
Don
asked
Diane Ackerman:
I had the pleasure of attending the author talk and shoeing of the film at ALA in January 2017. I was impressed by the adaptation of the book. I read the book when it first came out and it was a favorite that year. Have you done much reasearch into the recovery of the zoo and the family after the war? It can't have been easy.
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